The Snow Globe
by Cyn V
Summary: It was useless, tacky and childish, but to Obito it was the most beautiful thing ever. With it, he would make Rin fall in love.


**Summary:** _It was useless, tacky and childish, but to Obito it was the most beautiful thing ever. With it, he would make Rin fall in love._**  
Disclaimer:** Naruto _(c) Kishimoto! I'm making no material profits here._

* * *

It was useless, tacky and childish, but to Obito it was the most beautiful thing ever. It was the solution to all his problems, the key to making his dream come true, the first step to ruling the world... Naturally, he had to have it. So when the shop clerk gave him a funny look after he announced that he wanted to buy the snow globe with the miniature Konoha and the floating pink hearts, all the Uchiha did was grin, pitying the poor man's lack of vision.

"Could you wrap it, please?" Obito asked as he prepared to pay and a sudden light came on in the clerk's eyes.

"Oh, are you getting a gift for your little sister, Obito?"

The thought that he'd spend his hard-earned money on the little brat who'd robbed him of his bedroom and forever sealed the anti-Obito bond their two older brothers shared was appalling and he didn't mind saying so to the man who had long been a family acquaintance.

"Hell no! This one's for me," he added.

The brown paper parcel that was finally handed over to him gave Obito pause - it was not nearly as awesome as he'd like - but then his smile returned as he thought of all the butterfly stickers his sister collected.

Finally, it would pay off to have her around. She wouldn't mind if he borrowed a few to decorate his gift for Rin's birthday, he was sure, and he was such an amazing brother that he knew he wouldn't even have to ask either.

With a parting wave and a skip in his step, he left a slightly confused shopkeeper behind and went home to put the final touches on his glorious present.

The house was empty. Could it get any better?, he wondered while running up the stairs towards his sister's room.

The place was barely recognisable as the same old haven it had been before his sister's birth, back when it used to be his clothes and play shuriken that adorned the floor instead of the disgusting carpet with prints of retarded-looking fat bears. For the sake of his plan to conquer Rin's heart, though, he managed to overcome his disgust as he approached the desk.

He used up three sheets' worth of stickers in all the colours of the rainbow, which was nowhere near as pretty as his team-mate, and was even lucky enough to find a pink set of flowery stationery. The writing paper almost asphyxiated him, but he pulled up his shirt over his nose to ward off the perfumed haze and told himself that girls loved that kind of stuff. Rin was a girl, amazingly enough - girls were usually idiots - so she had to like it!

The only working pen he could find was tipped in purple feathers and he picked it up to write his note: _Happy 10th birthday, Rin! I really like you! I'm going to be the best ninja in the world so I can protect you. You can totally forget Kakashi. He's going down after I awaken my Sharingan!_

Obito took a moment to reread it and bask in his genius. If this didn't get Rin to fall in love with him, he didn't know what would. He was all set.

"What's this?"

The grating voice sounded like nails on a blackboard as it cut through Obito's daydreaming. He tried to hide his masterpiece behind his back and leave the room with minor fuss, but it was too late. One of his brothers grabbed his arms, while the other dove in to pry the note from his fingers. Obito struggled, but after his attempt to shake them both loose led him head first into the closet, he lost the battle.

The two closed the closet doors on him and leaned against it so he couldn't open them while they read the note out loud. When he was finally released, Obito's face was flushed red with embarrassment and anger.

"Aww, how cute! Does little Obi have a girlfriend?" they mocked.

Obito fumed and made a grab to retrieve his gift for Rin. The other two, however, with their annoying "look at me, I'm a chuunin!" reflexes, immediately lifted it over their heads and passed it along between them while staying out of the shorter boy's reach.

"Come on, guys, give it back! I'm gonna be late!" and knowing how his brothers probably weren't even listening to his pleas, he lunged at his precious gift anew.

His efforts backfired rather dismally when both the older Uchiha jumped out the window and left him to cough up the left-over toxic vapours of the perfume. He was not letting them go without a fight!, he thought as he rushed out to follow them.

By the time his brothers finally tired of their game and Obito made it to Rin's house, it was already after dark. The wrapping on his gift was torn and the note had taken a dip in a puddle of murky water during one particular tackle to wrestle it free, but Obito tried to patch things up with the butterfly stickers, hoping the bright colours would draw attention away from the imperfections.

Rin's party seemed to have ended some time ago, as the house was quiet and all the lights were out. For once, he felt guilty for missing the scheduled hours and to go knocking at someone else's home so late.

"Obito?" Rin answered the door. She looked different and it took a moment for Obito to realise why. She was wearing pants!

"Yeah, it's me...! I... I'm sorry I was late for the party... there was a ladder and..."

"Obito," Rin cut him off, already too accustomed to the kind of excuse that would follow to have to hear it. "It's okay. I missed having you here with everyone, but I'm glad you made it in the end."

Obito's breath was taken away. She'd missed him... Then he felt guilty and awkward and tried to cover it up by thrusting his present into Rin's hands. "Here. This is for you."

She smiled, he was pleased to see, and pulled out the note. Her nose crinkled at the smell of stale water and the mud stains - he crossed his fingers behind his back - and then she squinted her eyes and tried to read.

"Happy... really... protect... Kakashi... Sharingan?" she asked. "The ink's all blurry... I can't understand the rest. What does it say?"

Obito opened his mouth to speak, but then found that his lungs and throat still weren't working quite right. He wanted to say "I like you!" but she was staring and he could not bring himself to say anything, feeling vulnerable before her large brown eyes. Then she made a move as if to speak and it was too late.

"Happy birthday! That's... basically it..." he stuttered.

"Thanks, Obito," she said, shoulders shrugged and arms cradling his little, muddy present in that sweet manner of hers that sent his heart racing.

Then she started to peel whatever paper was left around the gift to reveal the little snow globe the Uchiha had picked out. The package had looked miserable on the outside, but Obito was glad to see that the globe itself was in one piece.

"Oh, I've wanted one of these for ever! I love it! Thank you, Obito!"

The boy did not hear a word after "I love" and when Rin closed in to kiss his cheek, he was so high up in the stratosphere that the feeling barely registered.

"I have some left-over cake inside. Do you want to come in?"

Obito was about to say yes, but then he remembered the mess that his fight with his brothers had left on the backyard of their house. If he was lucky and hurried back home, he might be able to frame his brothers for the felony in front of their parents before they did and avoid getting grounded for a week.

"Sorry, I have to go. It's getting late," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow at practice?"

"Sure. I'll take you some of that cake if you show up on time."

Obito laughed and made a promise that he would. Then again, that was something he always did at the end of every team meeting and never kept, so both knew that he would be late as usual.

Rin bid him goodbye and Obito turned away to return to his house.

As he was settling down to sleep, early and with no right to dessert, the ten-year-old ran a mental tally. Rin had thanked him and said that she had missed him, and the word love had totally been brought up somewhere along the way.

He figured he could say: mission accomplished.


End file.
